Topological Information in Geometrical Models of Buildings

Designing structures involves the fulfillment of topological properties. Based on these requirements a new technique is outlined which enables the direct modeling of the desired topology rather than wrapping the topological properties into a geometric model. This topological model will then be utilized in building up a consistent geometric model. The geometric model is stored as an extension of the topological model. Applying this technique results in a cellular decomposition of a 3-dimensional space. Given such a cellular decomposition, a method to consistently identifying building components and rooms is outlined. The completeness and validity of the assembled components and rooms is checked based on set theory in combination with the topological model. Trees are used to structure components and rooms. These trees are handled as extensions of components and rooms. The relations of components and rooms to the topological model allow an efficient navigation on every hierarchical level. The modeling technique described in this paper is still in a research phase. Basic concepts and preliminary results are presented.